Participating in a National Dialogue

5 Oct 2017 | Wonderfruit

This year Team Wonderfruit was invited to take part in UNDP’s Youth Co:Lab. Here’s what happened.

Knowing very well that innovative thinking and collaboration is required to achieve their Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), UNDP has launched a National Dialogue to invite young people with new perspectives, talents and abilities to drive change and shape a better society.

Youth Co:Lab Thailand is an initiative under Thailand Social Innovation Platform, supported by the United Nation Development Program and Citi Foundation, which invited young people from all over Thailand to submit their ideas for social innovation. The selected teams took part in a four-day incubator to develop their ideas under the themes of “people”, “prosperity” and “planet” – the latter of which was hosted by Wonderfruit, since it’s a topic close to our hearts.

Selected teams underwent preparation via online webinars throughout October and then, over the week of 13-16 November, Team Wonderfruit, led by founder Pete – who spoke on the panel, joined other experts in the fields of technology, development, innovation and business to moderate and judge the final ideas at the incubator, here in Bangkok. Check out pictures of Youth Co:Lab – National Dialogue getting underway here.

True to our ethos, we were particularly looking for ideas that answer the question, “How can we make sustainable living more appealing?” We were very excited to see what ideas, projects and initiatives came out of the incubator. Our runners-up were Chu Gla who are working on offering Thai sugarcane farmers an alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture, which creates harmful haze, by creating a market for bagasse flower pots. Our winning team, who’ll get the chance to come to Wonderfruit to present their idea and to crowdfund it on Asiola.com, were Yala Icon who are building a community in Yala province for crafters and artisans to sell their local products through online and offline channels. Stay tuned for updates.

Check out more pics from the presentation day here and find out more about Youth Co:Lab and the National Dialogue here.